Show 0 F C 9 I TK J n nr r a n J- J 1 1 1 r f f l i w 4 r g OS' OS I I I Ii i The American Express 1855 Louis M Maurer surer Ir I r M Last of and Ives Artists r fo for I Ii i Ii i t t I J i if it iI I L V 7 Y F t y t r T f Z jr a 4 r f 7 Fd r a t tr t r I I The heTt Tappers ers Defense Fire Fight Fi ht fire Tire 4 t iM j ll 7 1 fl r 1 r. r f m 4 i t- t 1 11 r t it Wl- Wl i lf I jl i t. t Lj- Lj ff i fuI Hunter Life of b Taft a. a r r t i J Y L 1 iU h I Si S w i y os a aa The Theft Lifts The Fruits of Intemperance 1 By ELMO SCOTT WATSON OME day when youre you're rummaging r J. J around In the attic of the old homestead and you come across a curious old colored picture in a quaint old-fashioned old frame dont don't pass It up without further notice as Just another outdated item In Inthe Inthe Inthe the collection of ot Junk which accum accumulates lates in attics Better take j another look at it and see if It there appears at the bottom these words Printed by Currier and Ives Nassau Street New York If It so U theres there's eres ere's a chance that Its It's worth several everal hundred times the price your grandfather grandfather grandfather grand grand- father paid for tor it that day a peddler pack came around and sold It to him He may have charged your our relative two or three dollars for It thereby making a handsome profit for far the picture itself cost him only six cents and your grandfather didn't realize that he was paying a high price price price- a IS much too-high too price price for for a simple wooden frame Nor could either the peddler pack or orI I your four our grandfather realize that years later that i six-cent six picture might be worth anywhere from frona to oo or if It happened to be some particular particular par par- one even up Into the thousands Yet such Is the case for Currier and Ives prints have become Americana eagerly sought for tor by collectors and worth unheard unheard-of of prices prices- r not because they are examples of ot great art b but t because some of ot them are very rare At an auctIon auction tion of ot Currier and Ives prints held In New York city In 1928 1028 a number of ot them averaged better than and one brought More than n that a book about them printed as late as 1929 1323 and containing reproductions of or ot 32 of ot the most famous prints sold for tor 40 a copy True True It was a limited edition but that same book today Is selling for tor more than four times Umes Its original cost And theres there's another nother Item which r reflects the tact fact that If It you happen to own a genuine Currier find and Ives print you have a valuable possession taking advantage of desire of ot collectors for tor these examples of ot art French lithographers within the last year have been reproducing them even going to the trouble to make them look old and faded and specked flyspecked and offering them for tor sale as genuine Currier and Ives prints How However ver It is not difficult for tor the expert to detect these frauds There Is considerable difference dif dif dif- ference between the appear appearance once of a print made by modern color p printing nt ng processes and that of a print In which the color was applied by the Currier and Ives process of ot the hand brush So before you become excited over OTer the discovery dis dis- dis I covery of ot a Currier and Ives hes print make make sure that its it's an original and not a reproduction I And even then dont don't have dreams of ot sudden wealth For there are only a few of these i prints rInt which are worth a great deal of ot money t I and some Borne of ot them are worth only a few tew dol dol- 1 lars lara In fact th theres there's res re's no set price for tor a CurrierI Currier I and Iv Ives bes es print Its It's worth what you can get for tor It Jt and that depends upon how badly some collector collector col col- lector wants It Why all aU this sudden boom in fn the prices of ot a form torm of ot art which was popular with one genera genera- tion of ot Americans and scorned by the next as mid VIctorian and old fashioned Th Tho an an- an answer is of ot course that as soon as collectors began egan seeking these of ot Americana as a recent writer has aptly named them and discovered that they were becoming Increasingly rare the ancient law of ot supply and demand began began began be be- gan to operate So prices for Currier and Ives bes prints as for any other commodity which someone someone some someone one has to sell and which some one else Is willing to buy began to go up Exactly the same thing happened when It was discovered that the old yellow yellow back back dime novels were Americana It Is axiomatic among collectors collectors collectors col col- col- col lectors that what Is cheap today may be dear tomorrow and one commentator on the astonishing astonishing aston aston- increase In the value of ot Currier and Ives bes prints seriously suggests that It might p pay y some provident reader to begin collecting comic strips for posterity may want them who them who knows 1 Which leads to the real reason for the value of ot Currier and Ives prints the value which set collectors hot on their trail troll For beginning a hundred years ago and continuing for more than halt half a century they mirrored contemporary American life They were the news reels of ofa a day when newspapers contained little or no pictorial material except for occasional fashion prints They supplied a definite need for pictured pictured pic pic- news before Frank Franl Leslie's Illustrated Weekly and Harpers Harper's Weekly appeared on the scene with their woodcuts to do that They pictured news of ot Immediate and pungent pungent pungent pun pun- gent Interest writes one commentator on this subject It was not so much the actual discovery discovery discovery dis dis- dis- dis covery of gold in California in 1849 19 that started the gold rus rush across the plains as it ws the Currier and Ives Imaginary picture of ot the event that Inspired the tremendous and arduous mf- mf mi ml migration gration to the Pacific The clipper ship prints suggested a less perilous route Then came the railway pictures the prints of ot the first transcontinental transcontinental trans trans- continental trains running amidst Indians and buffalo These prints were on a n. great variety of sub- sub subI I In addition to news pictures there were various historical scenes marine subjects pictures pictures pictures pic pic- tures of ot horse racing and other sports portraits of ot famous men political cartoons and nd subjects of ot a sentimental and highly moral nature The temperance crusade which began in the Is re reflected in a number of ot Currier a and ul Ives prints of ot which the two The Fruits of Temperance and The Fruits of Intemperance shown above are typical And the Currier and Ives prints were were also the first comic strips for they had one series of ot caricatures of ot life among the negroes called Comics which were very popular All AU of ot these pictures have a historical value valne to later Inter generations of Americans which Is difficult difficult cult to estimate Made long before the day y of ot the camera they preserved for tor us details of ot coso cos- cos tomo and other otner seemingly unimportant facts which are of th the highest value In that they reveal things about our forefathers rs which the formal historians overlook and even th the most skillful word painter could not make make understandable understand understand- able to us' us how people of ot those times looked and acted as vividly as can a Currier and Ives print So Currier and Ives pictorial historians sellIng sell sell- Ing lag their prints ts for prices ranging from six J cents to 3 depending upon their size supplying supplying supplying sup sup- plying peddlers who hawked their wares along the streets and through the countryside conducting con con- ducting one of the earliest mail maU order trades and building up op a business which flourished for tor tormore more than half balf a century not only enriched themselves but enriched our national tradition as well It lt was In 1830 that young Nathaniel Currier working as an apprentice e In Boston to Johnt John Pendleton who had returned from Europe with t the new art of ot lithography began to think o of ot i I embarking In his own business So he wen went t to I New York and began his career as a lithographer In partnership with a man named Stoddard This lasted only ony a year but In 1835 Currier began again In 1850 1810 James A. A Ives hes Joined his fortunes t to Curriers Currier's and the famous firm was on Its way t to Success success Two years later a young German who wh had been drawing political cartoons in Germany Germans came to this country and set himself up as a lithographer ler Louis Lollis Maurer was his name an anin andIn and andIn d ds In time he became one of ot the Currier and Ivea Ives s aces And It Is In this man that there is provIded provided provided pro pro- vided an additional link between the Currier an and J Ives ves era and the present For Louis Maurer i la Is a still living in New York and recently celebrated celebrate d his ninth ninety-ninth birthday Maurer can tell Interesting stories of how bow h ha a went to work for the lithographers for tor 10 a n week how his salary was raised to 13 a wee week when he made a big hit with his drawing o othe of t the race two famous horses of the day Flora Temple and Highland Maid and how when whet he be left them In 1860 he was getting all of 15 1 g a week This for the services of a man whose e pictures s are n now w selling for hundreds of ot dollars dollars dollars dol dol- lars Incidentally ly Louis Maurer Maure doesn't ow own n one of ot his own prints For thirty years Currier and Ives were printmakers printmakers print makers to the American people and then i in n 1880 1580 Currier retired with a comfortable fortune The firm however continued with a n son of th the e founder in his place In 1888 1883 machine color solo r printing which had been started in this coun country country try in 1850 0 O was vas applied to th the Currier and Ire Ives s pr product and even grea greater er numbers of f their pictures pictures pic plc tures flooded the country But by 1901 1001 cheaper cheape r methods of color printing forced them out o of ot f business and it took another thirty years years t to bring them ba back k Into the limelight again only again only y this time It TV was as the limelight which plays upon n the historic past So 1931 finds Americans ransacking old garrets garrets garrets gar gar- and out out-of way the way places for examples examples' o othe of f the art of Louis Maurer l and others ers who made mad e the name of ot Currier and Ives famous For It i Is s their work which is commanding the high prices price s today and those who have haye these prints shot should sd d look for tor the name o of the artist who drew th the e picture before getting excited over the possibility possibility possibility of ot Its having great value The Currier Currie r and Ives aces were were Maurer who did western wester n scenes and the fire firemen en series Thomas Worth North I who did horse prints and the Comics A. A I F F. F Tal Talt Tait who did western scenes camping campin g r I outdoor prints and field sports Fanny Palmer who did American scenes and farm scenes an and d 1 Butterworth and Charles Parsons who wh did ships and marine scenes I In general the transportation prints prints ran rail railroads I roads emigrant trains etc the the ship pictures picture s I and the hunting scenes are most valued by col col- I lectors A print of The American Express shown above recently sold for but Tails Tail's s The liThe Life of a Hunter so far has the record d A A print of or this picture topped the New York k C sale with price of a But lest anyone anyon e who happens to have one of these Life of or a Hunter pictures believe that he has an unsuspected unsuspected S gold mine In his possession let It b be e added that hat there ther were two Currier and Ives lye s prints Issued under this title One had the subtitle sub sub- title A uA Tight Fix and It It was one of these thes e which winch brought the The other which ha has s I the title sub of ot Catching a Tartar artar is wor worth W only 20 or so But as previously stated a a Currier and Ives print is worth what you ca can n get for tor it and if It you have havo one and dont don't nee need d the money which it will m bring whether bring whether 10 0 or r 50 or or immediately Immediately better hold e on n I to it I J For on one thing you have a n relic of ot otan a an n Interesting period In American history and ard for tor f 0 nr r another you have something which will In increase reas rens v I in value as the years go on Q by W Union I |